Quotes from Italo Calvino

and the emptied sky gaped like an abyss where, at the bottom, the stars had begun multiplying, and the night poured a river of emptiness over me, drowned me in dizziness and alarm.

without ever knowing what he believed in, but trying to believe firmly until the last.

he continues coming to this café every evening to see her, to open the old wound again, perhaps also to know who is walking her home this evening; and she comes to this café every evening perhaps deliberately to make him suffer, or perhaps hoping that the habit of suffering will become for him a habit like any other, that it will take on the flavor of the nothingness that has coated her mouth and her life for years.

Ma già le navi stano scomparendo all'orizzonte e io rimasi qui, in questo nostro mondo pieno di responsabilità e di fuochi fatui.

I still look for her as soon as the first sliver appears in the sky, and the more it waxes, the more clearly I imagine I can see her, her or something of her, but only her, in a hundred, a thousand different vistas, she who makes the Moon the Moon and, whenever she is full, sets the dogs to howling all night long, and me with them.

Praise be to the stars that implode. A new freedom opens up within them: annulled from space, exonerated from time, existing, at last, for themselves alone and no longer in relation to all the rest, perhaps only they can be sure they really exist.

on the façade of the house the lighted candles opened eyes of gold within the window frames.

Forse l'impero,pensò Kublai,non è altro che uno zodiaco di fantasmi della mente.

Ogni libro nasce in presenza di altri libri, in rapporto e confronto ad altri libri.

If you compare yourself with the limitations that came afterwards, if you think of how having one form excludes other forms, of the monotonous routine where you finally feel trapped, well, I don't mind saying, life was beautiful in those days.

L'estraneità di ciò che non sei più o non possiedi più t'aspetta al varco dei luoghi estranei e non posseduti.

U?wiadomi?em sobie w?asne ograniczenia - powiedzia? mi. - W procesie lektury zachodzi co?, na co nie mam wp?ywu." Mog?em mu odpowiedzie?, ?e tej granicy nie mo?e przekroczy? nawet najbardziej wszechobecna policja ?wiata. Mo?emy zabroni? czytania, lecz w dekrecie zabraniaj?cym czytania da?oby si? wyczyta? co? z prawdy, której woleliby?my nigdy nie ujawnia?...

Solo dopo aver conosciuto la superficie delle cose, ci si può spingere a cercare quel che c'è sotto. Ma la superficie delle cose è inesauribile.

Perhaps everything lies in knowing what words to speak, what actions to perform, and in what order and rhythm; or else someone's gaze, answer, gesture is enough; it is enough for someone to do something for the sheer pleasure of doing it, and for his pleasure to become the pleasure of others: at that moment, all spaces change, all heights, distances; the city is transfigured, becomes crystalline, transparent as a dragonfly.

L'altrove è uno specchio in negativo. Il viaggiatore riconosce il poco che è suo,scoprendo il molto che non ha avuto e non avrà.

Le città come i sogni sono costruite di desideri e di paure,anche se il filo del loro discorso è segreto,le loro regole assurde,le prospettive ingannevoli, e ogni cosa ne nasconde un'altra.

Wci?? s? w ruchu te same przedmioty, przechodz?c z jednego obozu do innego, czy z jednego pu?ku do innego w tym samym obozie; czym?e zreszt? innym jest w ogóle wojna, je?li nie przechodzeniem z r?k do r?k dobytku coraz bardziej sponiewieranego?

Travelling, you realize that differences are lost: each city takes to resembling all cities, places exchange their form, order, distances, a shapeless dust cloud invades the continents. Your atlas preserves the differences intact: that assortment of qualities which are like the letters in a name.

La lettura è un rapporto con noi stessi e non solo col libro, col nostro mondo interiore attraverso il mondo che il libro ci apre.

Wojna to troch? rze?nia, a troch? rutyna i nie ma co czepia? si? zanadto szczegó?ów.

One summer day, Eugenio Scalfari and I created an entire philosophical system: the philosophy of the élan vital . The next day we discovered that it had already been invented by Bergson.

Yo, al contrario, estoy convencido hace tiempo de que la perfección sólo se produce accesoriamente y por azar; por tanto no merece el menor interés, pues la verdadera naturaleza de las cosas sólo se revela en la destrucción

Jego [cesarza] zadanie to prowadzi? t? wojn?, która w danej chwili si? toczy, i co najwy?ej pomy?le? jeszcze o nast?pnej.

When a man rides a long time through wild regions he feels the desire for a city.